According to Google Trends, but also according to Distrowatch, our own statistics here at OSNews and overall sense of the industry during 2006, Ubuntu has a big leap in mind share ahead of its competition (please note that we don't dare to say "market share", although we are pretty confident that it's the most used Linux desktop out there today). The second Fedora has a very small edge ahead of SuSe (while in US is a clear second), while Debian is following fourth. Mandrake+Mandriva (add both names on Google Trends and then sum the results) is clearly way below the previous four distros, but a clear 5th nonetheless. Last year Ubuntu was only a bit ahead of the other distros worldwide, but 2006 seems to have skyrocketed the distribution in the people's minds and computers.

However, this is off-topic, as this article is about mind share, not market share.

I'm pretty sure the article says:

"please note that we don't dare to say "market share", although we are pretty confident that it's the most used Linux desktop out there today"

Sounds like market share is being mentioned even though that usually sends my stalker into a tizzy. Or are they just afraid of being stalked too?

Also, it's not about Linux vs. Microsoft, but about Ubuntu's popularity vs. other Linux distros. Please don't turn this into a Linux vs. Windows flame war. If you have something constructive to say about the topic, then please be my guest. If you don't, then please refrain from trolling this thread. Thank you.

The OSSnews police has spoken!

If you think Google search choices is a valid topic of dicussions, why not the OS used to make those requests?